In the existing switch systems based on FC networks, in order to enable communication between different network elements, the network administrator has to manually configure the corresponding attribute for each of the ports of all the switches between these network elements. However, once the network topology changes, the administrator again will have to adaptively adjust the attributes of the corresponding switch ports manually.
For example, in the case of dividing an FC network into different virtual storage area networks (VSAN), communication can take place only between a server and a physical magnetic disk belonging to the same VSAN, and in order to realize the communication between the server and the physical magnetic disk belonging to this VSAN, the network administrator has to manually configure attributes for ports on the server side and ports on the physical magnetic disk side of all switches between said server and said physical magnetic disk, namely, making them all join the corresponding VSAN. If there are N (N being a positive integer greater than or equal to 1) interconnecting switches between the server and the physical magnetic disk, the network administrator has to perform manual configuration 2N times. Of course, the configurable attributes may also include different zones in which each of the ports joins, and the situation thereof is similar to that of VSAN, so they will not be listed specifically herein.
Therefore, the existing attribute configuration can only be performed by the administrator manually, which is merely a static way of configuration, so the efficiency for port attribute configuration is low, and manual operation tends to cause mis-configuration.